[BostonCard]

Thanks. Do you ever see that with other diseases, illnesses, etc.? Can a bad case on pneumonia get like that or is this worse than you've seen generally speaking?

By the way, kind of off topic, but can someone like this be put on a heart / lung machine (or just a lung machine, if there is such a thing)? And really off-topic -- are there any developments in artificial or re-grown lungs?

Yes, you can see it with other diseases, most notably ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome), which can be triggered by a lot of things, including coronavirus (but also a lot of other things, including severe trauma, severe infections [even outside the lungs] that lead to sepsis, pancreatitis, etc.).  Severe viral pneumonias (like coronavirus but also influenza) will cause bilateral pneumonias.  Traditionally, bacterial pneumonias like those caused by pneumococcus, will cause one lobe of one of the lungs to be almost completely filled with pus, but the other lobes and the other lung are usually ok.  That being said, Staph pneumonias can affect both lungs, though it looks patchier.  Pulmonary disease aside, heart failure can look a lot like this.

The answer to your second question is yes.  A few articles have made reference to ECMO machines (extracorporal membrane oxygenation), which are essentially heart lung machines, which can keep oxygen flowing if the lungs are so trashed that it is impossible to get any oxygen to the blood that way.  The problem is that they are rare.  There are fewer than 1000 hospitals nationwide capable of providing the service, and they probably can only run a handful of machines at most each.  They are also very resource intensive (you need a perfusionist 24/7 at the machine to make sure it is constantly working), it is a high risk intervention (it can lead to blood clots and strokes and kidney failure and a whole host of other things), and it generally can only be done successfully in young, otherwise healthy individuals whose only problem is their lungs (or heart and lungs). 

Here's an article about its potential use in Covid-19:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fu...le/2761778

BC

[BostonCard]

Thanks. Do you ever see that with other diseases, illnesses, etc.? Can a bad case on pneumonia get like that or is this worse than you've seen generally speaking?

By the way, kind of off topic, but can someone like this be put on a heart / lung machine (or just a lung machine, if there is such a thing)? And really off-topic -- are there any developments in artificial or re-grown lungs?

Yes, you can see it with other diseases, most notably ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome), which can be triggered by a lot of things, including coronavirus (but also a lot of other things, including severe trauma, severe infections [even outside the lungs] that lead to sepsis, pancreatitis, etc.).  Severe viral pneumonias (like coronavirus but also influenza) will cause bilateral pneumonias.  Traditionally, bacterial pneumonias like those caused by pneumococcus, will cause one lobe of one of the lungs to be almost completely filled with pus, but the other lobes and the other lung are usually ok.  That being said, Staph pneumonias can affect both lungs, though it looks patchier.  Pulmonary disease aside, heart failure can look a lot like this.

The answer to your second question is yes.  A few articles have made reference to ECMO machines (extracorporal membrane oxygenation), which are essentially heart lung machines, which can keep oxygen flowing if the lungs are so trashed that it is impossible to get any oxygen to the blood that way.  The problem is that they are rare.  There are fewer than 1000 hospitals nationwide capable of providing the service, and they probably can only run a handful of machines at most each.  They are also very resource intensive (you need a perfusionist 24/7 at the machine to make sure it is constantly working), it is a high risk intervention (it can lead to blood clots and strokes and kidney failure and a whole host of other things), and it generally can only be done successfully in young, otherwise healthy individuals whose only problem is their lungs (or heart and lungs). 

Here's an article about its potential use in Covid-19:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fu...le/2761778

BC